Introduction

This Statistical Analysis Report presents data collected from two surveys conducted in spring1999: "Survey on Vocational Programs in Secondary Schools" and "Survey on Occupational Programs inPostsecondary Education Institutions."¹ The surveys were conducted to provide the U.S. Department ofEducation's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) with national estimates on occupationalprogram activities.

Background

The surveys on occupational programs were conducted in response to increasing nationalconcern over the gap between existing workforce skills and expanding workplace demands. That concernwas triggered by the "workforce crisis" described in America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages?(Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce 1990). It was also spurred by the recognition thatwith changing technology and work organizations, schools need to do more to equip students with thesophisticated and higher level skills that today's workplace requires (Grubb 1995). These concerns haveset in motion a demand for clearer and higher standards in occupational education, and for increasedindustry input in the development of those standards (Lankard 1995).

The push for standards and accountability in occupational education was also intensified byseveral policy initiatives over the past decade. The 1990 Carl D. Perkins Vocational and AppliedTechnology Education Act required that states establish systems of standards and measures to assessvocational education programs. The 1990 Act also authorized federal support for business and educationstandards projects. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor supported 22 projectsto create skill standards for a wide variety of occupations and industries. The National Skill StandardsBoard (NSSB), authorized in 1994 by the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, builds on these projects andthe efforts of other industry and occupational groups that have established skill standards. Its purpose is tostimulate the development of a voluntary national system of skill standards by creating a framework ofcareer clusters within which skill standards can be developed.² To achieve this goal, NSSB supportspartnerships of business, trade associations, education and community organizations, and other

stakeholders to develop skill standards. It also endorses skill standards systems developed by industry,labor, and education partnerships.

The 1998 Perkins Act builds on the above efforts by expanding the requirements for states todevelop performance accountability systems, including state-level measures of student skill attainment. Inkeeping with the legislation, performance accountability systems are intended to:

• Include four core indicators that measure student performance and post-vocationaleducation experiences in further education, training, and employment;
• Set performance levels for vocational outcomes, including student attainment of skillproficiencies; and
• Measure and report the performance of the states on the indicators.

It should be noted that although skill competencies are often used as or with skill standards,the focus of the surveys is on skill competencies, because competencies were easier for respondents toreport on reliably than were skill standards.³ These competencies might incorporate skill standards thatwere developed by the state and/or those developed locally through consultation between teachers andlocal employers. Some programs might have also integrated existing national standards.⁴ However, theuse of skill standards cannot be determined from these surveys. The surveys also focus on the role ofindustry in the development or adoption of skill competencies. Industry involvement is critical to ensurethat students are learning the skills currently required by the labor market, particularly in fast-changingindustries such as information technology, health, and manufacturing.

The secondary school survey was conducted through the National Center for EducationStatistics (NCES) Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), and the postsecondary survey was conductedthrough the NCES Postsecondary Education Quick Information System (PEQIS) during spring 1999.FRSS and PEQIS are survey systems designed to collect small amounts of issue-oriented data withminimal burden on respondents and within a relatively short timeframe. Survey data were weighted toproduce national estimates. Survey findings are presented by school type (comprehensive, vocational) forthe FRSS survey, and level of institution (2-year, less-than-2-year) for the PEQIS survey. All comparativestatements made in this report have been tested for statistical significance at the 0.05 level. However, notall significant comparisons are presented in the report.

Secondary schools were defined in the FRSS survey as public comprehensive⁵ and vocationalschools that include grades 11 and 12 (i.e., schools that may offer upper level occupational programs), andthe schools were asked about program activities for 28 selected occupations within 6 broad occupationalareas. The less-than-4-year institutions in the PEQIS survey included 2-year and less-than-2-yearinstitutions with Title IV eligibility,⁶ and the institutions were asked to report on program activities for 32selected occupations. (Appendix A provides more detail on how programs were defined and howoccupations were selected; appendix C contains copies of the survey instruments.) In this report, the FRSSdata are often presented separately for comprehensive schools and for vocational schools; data for bothtypes of schools collectively are presented as data for public secondary schools. Similarly, PEQIS surveydata are often presented separately for 2-year institutions and for less-than-2-year institutions; data for bothtypes of institutions collectively are presented as data for less-than-4-year institutions.

For the secondary school survey, questionnaires were mailed to a national sample of 1,200public secondary schools, comprising 600 vocational schools (including area or regional vocationalschools) and 600 comprehensive schools. A total of 517 vocational and 561 comprehensive schoolsresponded to the survey; another 38 entities were found not to be regular public secondary schools. Theresulting secondary sample represents a national population of about 1,800 public vocational schools and15,000 public comprehensive schools (Table 1). For the survey of postsecondary institutions, 1,289 less than-4-year institutions were sampled, comprising 689 2-year and 600 less-than-2-year institutions. Atotal of 595 2-year institutions and 505 less-than-2-year institutions completed the survey; another 117entities were found not to be qualified postsecondary institutions. The postsecondary sample represents anational sample of about 2,000 2-year and 1,600 less-than-2-year institutions that includes public, privatenonprofit, and private proprietary (i.e., for-profit) institutions (Table 1). Further information onmethodological issues can be found in appendix A.

Overall, a majority (66 percent) of all public secondary schools offered at least oneoccupational program that prepared students for the listed occupations: 35 percent of the schools offered 1to 5 programs, 18 percent offered 6 to 10 programs, and another 13 percent offered more than 10 programs(Table 2). However, about one-third (34 percent) of the schools did not offer any programs that preparestudents for these occupations.⁷ On average, vocational schools offered more occupational programs thandid comprehensive schools; for example, 44 percent of vocational schools compared with 9 percent ofcomprehensive schools offered more than 10 programs for the listed occupations. Since comprehensiveschools offer fewer programs than do vocational schools, it is easier for comprehensive schools to possessany given characteristic in "all of their programs." For this reason, comparisons between vocational andcomprehensive schools are limited to the percentages that meet the various criteria for "at least one of theirprograms."

Ninety percent of less-than-4-year postsecondary institutions offered at least one program forthe selected occupations (Table 2 and Figure 1). About half of the institutions offered 1 to 5 programs,another 11 percent offered 6 to 10 programs, and an additional 27 percent offered more than 10 programs.Two-year institutions offered considerably more programs than less-than-2-year institutions; for example,43 percent of 2-year institutions compared with 5 percent of less-than-2-year institutions offered more than10 programs that prepared students for the listed occupations.

Organization of the Report

This report contains 29 tables: 2 tables (1 and 2) presenting data for both surveys; 17 tables (3to 19) for the FRSS secondary school survey; and 10 tables (20 to 29) for the PEQIS postsecondaryinstitution survey. The section immediately following this introduction provides selected highlights fromthe tables. The following section presents the tables. After the tables, the reader will find the appendices,consisting of a methodology section (appendix A), references (Appendix B), and copies of the surveyinstruments (appendix C).

Presentation of the Data

This report presents three types of numbers: counts (of schools or institutions), percentages(of schools or institutions), and standard errors of all estimated counts and percentages. Every table exceptTable 1 is presented as part of a pair, with each part on a facing page. On the left-hand-side pages, thereader will find tables of counts and percentages listed for certain program or sample characteristics; on thefacing right-hand-side pages are tables of the standard errors associated with those counts and percentages.

Percentages are calculated for four different groups of secondary schools and postsecondaryinstitutions (see Figure 2). The largest group is the entire sample of responding schools (for the FRSSsurvey) or institutions (for the PEQIS survey). Only a few tables in this report - tables 1, 2, 4, and 23 - 25 - use this group as a base. These tables present statistics that describe the total population of schools orinstitutions, including schools and institutions that offer none of the occupational programs listed in thesurvey instruments.

The next largest group includes all the schools from the FRSS survey, or institutions from thePEQIS survey, that offered at least one of the listed occupational programs. (As mentioned above, thisgroup includes 66 percent of secondary schools and 90 percent of less-than-4-year postsecondaryinstitutions.) A common type of percentage calculated on this base divides the number of schools orinstitutions that possessed a certain program characteristic in all of their occupational programs by thenumber of schools or institutions with at least one occupational program. Another type of percentagedivides the number of schools or institutions that possessed a certain program characteristic in at least oneof their occupational programs by the number of schools or institutions with at least one occupationalprogram. However, the large differences in the number of programs offered by comprehensive versusvocational secondary schools and by 2-year versus less-than-2-year institutions may skew the results foranalyses that determine the percentage of schools that possess a certain characteristic in "all of theirprograms." So comparisons between comprehensive and vocational secondary schools and between 2-year and less-than-2-year institutions focus on the percentages that meet various criteria for "at least oneof their programs." (This base is used in at least part of each of tables 3-11 and 20 - 29.)

The third, and next largest, group includes all the schools or institutions that had at least oneoccupational program within a broad program area (i.e., business and marketing, technical, mechanical,building trades, health/life sciences, or service occupations). A common type of percentage calculated onthis base divides the number of schools or institutions that possessed a certain program characteristic in allof their occupational programs in a broad program area by the number of schools or institutions with atleast one occupational program in that broad program area. Another type divides the number of schools orinstitutions that possessed a certain program characteristic in at least one of their occupational programs ina broad program area by the number of schools or institutions with at least one occupational program in thebroad program area. (This base is used in at least part of each of tables 3, 5-11, 21, 22, and 26-29.)

The last and smallest group includes only those schools or institutions that have a program fora specific occupation (e.g., accountant/bookkeeper). The percentage calculated using this base divides thenumber of schools or institutions that possess a certain program characteristic for that specific occupationalprogram by the number of schools or institutions with that specific occupational program. (This base isused in tables 3, 10-19, 21, and 22.)

The number of schools or institutions contained in the second, third, and fourth groups can belocated in Table 3 (for secondary schools) and Table 20 (for postsecondary institutions). The top line liststhe number of schools or institutions with at least one occupational program, which is then broken out intovocational and comprehensive categories for FRSS and 2-year and less-than-2-year categories for PEQIS.Below the top line are six rows representing the number of schools or institutions with at least oneoccupational program in each of the listed broad program areas. These numbers are then broken out intovocational and comprehensive categories for FRSS, and 2-year and less-than-2-year categories for PEQIS,in their respective columns to the right. Below the broad program area section are 28 rows of numbers, inthe case of FRSS, and 32 rows of numbers, in the case of PEQIS. These numbers represent the number ofschools or institutions with the occupational program indicated for the row. These numbers are then brokenout into vocational and comprehensive categories for FRSS, and 2-year and less-than-2-year categories forPEQIS, in their respective columns to the right. Similar data for the percentage of schools or institutionsin each group are listed in Table 4 (for secondary schools) and Table 23 (for postsecondary institutions).

¹ For the secondary school survey, a vocational program was defined as a sequence of courses designed to prepare students for an occupation (e.g.,nurses" aide) or occupation area (e.g., health care) that typically requires education below the baccalaureate level. This definition did not includecareer exploration or other introductory courses that prepare students for adult life or for work in general (e.g., consumer and homemaking, andindustrial arts).

² Career clusters are collections of courses, related to each other, within an occupational area (e.g., construction rather than just masonry orcarpentry or health care rather than just medical technology or nursing).

³ Technically, a skill competency is a concept, skill, or attitude that is essential to an occupation; the level of attainment or performance establishedfor a skill competency is a skill standard. Among school personnel, however, these terms are often used interchangeably.

⁴ Although there are some existing national standards (e.g., the American Society of Engineers automobile standards), NSSB skill standards do notyet exist.

⁵ The term comprehensive school has exactly the same meaning as regular school. Comprehensive, or regular, schools do not focus primarily onspecial, vocational, or alternative education, although they may offer these programs in addition to the regular curriculum. A vocational schoolfocuses primarily on vocational, technical, or career education and provides education or training in at least one semiskilled or technicaloccupation.

⁶ Title IV eligibility means an institution is eligible to participate in federal student financial aid programs, which can include loans, grants, andwork study programs. More specifically, institutions are eligible to participate in Title IV programs if they are accredited by an agency ororganization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, if they have a program of over 300 clock hours or 8 credit hours, if they have beenin business for at least 2 years, and if they have signed a participation agreement with the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) in theDepartment. Eligibility was verified with the OPE's list of participating institutions for the 1997-98 academic year.

⁷ One reason for this finding is that respondents were asked to identify which occupational programs they had from among those on a selective list;some of these schools may have offered occupational programs that were not among those listed. Another possible reason for this finding is thatthe definition of vocational programs used in the survey excluded lower level vocational programs that typically do not prepare students forentry-level jobs. For example, it excluded career exploration and other introductory courses that prepare students for adult life or work in general(e.g., industrial arts). Finally, some of the comprehensive high schools might be sending their students to area vocational schools for technical education.

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